Turkey's Erdogan declares three-month state of emergency following failed coup

Turkey's president Wednesday extended the country's state of emergency for three months following last week's failed military coup.

The declaration by Recep Tayyip Erdogan enables the imposition of curfews and searches of people by Turkish security forces on the street. Everyone will be required to carry identity cards.

Erdogan, who said the measures were put in place to "take all steps needed to eliminate the threat against democracy," stopped short of declaring full martial law. He said that the state of emergency was "strictly a measure taken to overcome terror."

"This is absolutely not an act to limit our citizens' economic activities," the president added.

Erdogan, who has said he narrowly escaped being killed or captured by renegade military units, suggested that purges would continue within military ranks.

"As the commander in chief, I will also attend to it so that all the viruses within the armed forces will be cleansed," Erdogan said.

After the speech, jubilant crowds in Istanbul's central Taksim square raised Turkish flags in support of the government, while car horns honked in the Besiktas district, an opposition stronghold.

The latest insurrection by some military units was launched late Friday, but security forces and protesters loyal to the government quashed the rebellion.

Erdogan says the pro-government death toll in the botched coup was 246. At least 24 coup plotters were also killed.

Cracking down on alleged subversives in education, Turkey also said Wednesday that it would close more than 600 private schools and dormitories following the attempted coup, spurring fears that the state's move against perceived enemies is throwing key institutions in the NATO ally into disarray.

Erdogan's government said it has fired nearly 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools and sacked or detained half a dozen university presidents in a campaign to root out alleged supporters of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for the botched insurrection on Friday.

Earlier, Erdogan suggested in an interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV network that coup plotters might still be active in the weeks ahead.

"I don't think we have come to the end of it yet," the president said.

The targeting of education ties in with Erdogan's belief that the U.S.-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whose followers run a worldwide network of schools, seeks to infiltrate the Turkish education system and other institutions in order to bend the country to his will. The cleric's movement, which espouses moderation and multi-faith harmony, says it is a scapegoat for what it describes as the president's increasingly autocratic conduct.

While Erdogan is seeking to consolidate the power of his elected government in the wake of the attempt to oust him, his crackdown could further polarize a country that once enjoyed a reputation for relative stability in the turbulent Middle East region. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of the military, courts and other institutions that are now being purged.

"The fact that so many judges have been detained, never mind the workload at the courthouses, will render them inoperable," Vildan Yirmibesoglu, a human rights lawyer, told the Associated Press. "How they will fill the vacancies, I don't know."

The education ministry said it decided to close 626 private schools and other establishments that are under investigation for "crimes against the constitutional order and the running of that order," the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The agency said the schools are linked to Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania and has denied accusations that he engineered the coup attempt.

Turkey has repeatedly named Gulen as the instigator of its turmoil and demands his extradition from the United States. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Turkey must provide hard evidence that Gulen was behind the foiled coup if it wants him extradited, and that mere allegations of wrongdoing wouldn't suffice.

The two allies cooperate in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State (ISIS) group, with American military planes flying missions from Turkey's Incirlik air base into neighboring Iraq and Syria.

Turkey's domestic situation is increasingly a concern as the government seeks to rid broad sectors of society of alleged antagonists. Huseyin Ozev, an education union leader in Istanbul, said state education workers who were reported to have been fired had not received notices and that employees were "waiting at home or on vacation, anxiously," to see if they had lost their jobs.

Any workers suspected of wrongdoing should undergo a formal investigation and the fight against coup plotters "should not be turned into a witch hunt," Ozev said.

The government has also revoked the press credentials of 34 journalists because of alleged ties to Gulen's movement, Turkish media reported. A satirical magazine, Leman, said authorities blocked the distribution of a special edition over its cover featuring a caricature in which two mysterious hands play a game of strategy, one pushing soldiers onto the board and the other responding by sending civilians.

Authorities have rounded up about 9,000 people -- including 115 generals, 350 officers, 4,800 other military personnel and 60 military high school students -- for alleged involvement in the coup attempt. Turkey's defense ministry has also sacked at least 262 military court judges and prosecutors, according to Turkish media reports.

The coup has led to public anger and calls for the government to reinstate the death penalty, a demand that Erdogan has said he will consider.

Hasan Ay, a municipal worker in Istanbul, said he wanted coup ringleaders to be executed.

"I am not talking about the private soldiers. They said on television that some of the privates were innocent," Ay said.

The instability is hurting confidence in the Turkish economy. The Turkish currency dropped 1.8 percent against the U.S. dollar Wednesday, trading at a low for the year of just over 3 lira to the dollar.

The purges against suspected Gulen supporters follow earlier aggressive moves by Erdogan's administration against Gulen loyalists in the government, police and judiciary following corruption probes targeting Erdogan associates and family members in late 2013 -- prosecutions the government says were orchestrated by Gulen.